LSU Tigers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron is probably getting over that Super Bowl angst rather quickly today. Cameron's three-year contract will give him an average of $1.13 million per year. That catapults him into the spot of earning the second-highest publicly disclosed assistant salary in college football, based on the latest available numbers.
College football’s highest-paid assistants: Top 10 joined by Cam Cameron
LSU offensive coordinator Cam Cameron joins a list of the most highly paid assistant coaches in college football.
Andy Lyons
Who else is on the list?
1. Chad Morris, Clemson offensive coordinator ($1,306,500): Morris was coaching high school four years ago. Now he’s the highest paid coordinator on a Tigers squad that had the sixth-highest scoring offense in the country last year and was fifth overall in Football Outsiders’ drive efficiency last season.
2. Cameron.
3. Kirby Smart, Alabama defensive coordinator ($950,000): Alabama has had the number one defense in FEI in two of Alabama’s national title seasons, the number one defense in S&P+ the past two years (and top five the two years previous).
4. John Chavis, LSU defensive coordinator ($911,250): Cameron isn’t the only highly paid coordinator on Les Miles’s coaching staff. Chavis’s defenses have finished top 10 in FEI the past three seasons.
5. Todd Grantham, Georgia associate head coach/defensive coordinator ($825,000, for now): Grantham is expected to receive a raise thanks to finishing strong in 2012 and withdrawing his name from the mix for the New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator position.
6 (tie). Brent Venables, Clemson defensive coordinator ($800,000): Venables was brought in to try and improve Clemson’s defense after an atrocious showing in their Orange Bowl, but it’s debatable whether he made much of a difference as Clemson’s defense didn’t really make any sizable improvements.
6. (tie) Ellis Johnson, Auburn defensive coordinator ($800,000): Johnson came in to replace Brian VanGorder, who had also been in the top ten ($875,000) last season.
8. Luke Fickell, Ohio State defensive coordinator ($761,000): Fickell was the head coach of the Buckeyes when Jim Tressel was forced to resign, but happily returned to a coordinator position when Urban Meyer took over. Meyer’s faith was rewarded when Ohio State’s defense had a solid season and the Buckeyes went undefeated.
9. Greg Mattison, Michigan defensive coordinator ($758,900): Mattison's Wolverines defense had its difficulties in 2012 after an impressive 2011 season, regressing quite a bit.
10. Justin Wilcox, Washington defensive coordinator ($750,000): Wilcox was brought to Seattle to improve one of the worst defenses in the Pac-12. In his first year with the Huskies he did just that, as UW was much improved in most defensive categories and additionally engineered a few upsets of top-25 teams.
11. Manny Diaz, Texas defensive coordinator ($700,000): Diaz figures to enter hot seat years, as the entire Longhorn coaching staff faces potential extinction with Mack Brown facing the fire in Austin.
Monte Kiffin had been the top man on the list, earning $1,533,764 in 2012, but the USC defensive coordinator resigned to take a similar position with the Dallas Cowboys. Tennessee defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri is in a similar boat after Derek Dooley got axed last season.
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